Shattered Skies
by GuiltyKingOumaShu
Summary: Every hero has to meet his end. When Sora's time eventually comes, what will fate have in store for Roxas, Ventus, Vanitas, Xion and Aros as they regain their freedom? A plot bunny of what I thought would happen if Sora's alter egos were allowed to get freed. Don't expect a story filled with happiness. Only real pairing is VanAqua


_**Hello fellas, if you clicked on this, that means that you ended up getting interested in an old plot bunny of mine that I finally decided to write down and share with you all.**_

 _ **It is quite old and a lot of thought had went into this. That being said, it hasn't ever gotten completely finished. While it does have a beginning and an end, some characters end up never getting their fates explored. You will easily be able to tell that I originally only started with the plot for Vanitas and Aqua and only started expanding everything around them as I put more thought into it. That's why their plot is the only one which feels somewhat complete. The rest will either have holes or will have open ends. Don't pretend I haven't warned you beforehand.**_

 _ **There won't really be any pairings aside from VanAqua because that's pretty much my only OTP in this franchise. Back when I was still working on this draft, I also had the plan to include a bit of Roxas x Namine, because I used to be into that, but aside from Namine's name appearing everywhere, you will never really notice anything since I hadn't fleshed it out by the time I stopped working on it.**_

 _ **I once intended to write this story down, but I eventually lost interest in the KH franchise due to it always staying so black and white. You notice it's set up for kids and I am afraid I am starting to grow out of it. Since I figured I would never write it down anyway, I thought it would be a shame to let all the work I had put into the concept go down the drain, so I decided to share it. Heck, maybe it might even give you ideas or something.**_

 _ **Oh yeah, one last thing, because there might be people who don't know: The story's title refers to Sora. Sora means sky in Japanese, so "Shattered Skies" is a metaphor for his heart getting fragmented.**_

* * *

 **Shattered Skies**

The story starts sometime after KH2. The first scene pictures Ventus, Vanitas, Roxas and Anti-Sora (who will be named Aros) inside of Sora's heart, getting sick and tired of their imprisonment. Roxas thinks fusing with Sora hadn't been worth it if all he would ever get from it in return would be lifelong imprisonment. Ventus agrees that he would rather get freed now to look for his friends while Vanitas describes being stuck with not only one, but two guys who looked and sounded like Ventus as being nothing short of torture. Speaking of torture, Aros says that everything had been fine before Roxas showed up with his stupid light element. Of all the elements to control, why had he had to choose light? It sickens him. They keep arguing with each other, sometimes noticing a fifth presence among them which spooks them out sometimes (Xion)

On the outside, after a short break back at home, Sora starts hearing rumors of Malificent amassing a horde of heartless in TWTNW. Figuring that she would be up to no good, he sets out to that world to check it out for himself. There he gets ambushed by the witch who had learned from her past encounters with him. Aiming to steal his heart to use it as fuel for her spells, she attempts to steal it. However, her spell fails and instead of stealing his heart, she ends up fragmenting it.

The fragmentation of Sora's heart causes him to fall, allowing all his "prisoners" to get freed. Finally free, they all set out into different directions, each and everyone of them following their own agendas.

Roxas returns as a nobody. Angered about having become one again, he tries to become a somebody once. But since he had ended up being Sora's prisoner, he wants to do so without ever bringing back the brunette keyblade master. So, thinking that simply waiting for a new heart to regrow for him would take too long, he decides to build a new Kingdom Hearts like Xemnas to make it grant him a new heart sooner. Realizing that he would need some help, he decides that he would have to recruit more nobodies. However, he only knows of Namine who is a prisoner of Kairi. Knowing fully well how much it sucks to be imprisoned, he decides to kidnap Kairi and set Namine free to make her his fist new organization member.

Meanwhile, Ventus wakes up in his own body in Castle Oblivion. Wanting to reunite with his freinds again, he sets out to look for them. However, he soon realizes that a lot of time had passed and that he doesn't know where the fuck everything is now. A lot has changed and he gets lost. Confused as he is, he manages to get to Disney Castle where he meets Micky. Micky then tells him how much time had actually passed and that his friends were lost long ago. Ventus explains to him how Sora has fallen and shocked as Micky is, he recruits Ventus to join him in his quest to ensure the universe's safety. Since Ven feels lost and doesn't know what else to do, he accepts.

Vanitas returns as well, though not in Castle Oblivion but the place he had originally perished. The Keyblade Graveyard. He is happy to be free at last and wants to try recreating the X-blade again. However, thanks to his last blunder with Ventus, he decides that he needs someone else. He wouldn't try the same shit again. Since he needs someone with a lot of light to counter his darkness, he sets for Kairi since she is the one he figures would be easiest to get. He intercepts Riku and Kairi as they are on their way to Disney Castle to report Micky of Sora's demise. Defeating Riku, who tries to protect Kairi he then proceeds to grab Kairi. However, as he is about to kidnap her, Roxas appears to steal her instead. Weakened because of his fight with Riku, Vanitas does not manage to overwhelm Roxas who then steals Kairi from right under his nose. Enraged about having lost to a fucking Ventus lookalike, he decides that going after the princesses of light would only be more trouble than it would be worth since all of them were guarded heavily. He needed someone else. Remembering his former backup candidate, he sets for Aqua and thus he conducts research on her current whereabouts.

Aros returns as a heartless, obviously, and feels disgusted by the universe's current light/darkness balance because there is far more light than darkness which he thinks sucks. He decides that he needs an army of heartless to bring darkness wherever he would go. First, though, he would need a base. He remembers that the one in TWTNW is still operational and goes there. He realizes that the castle is currently held by Malificent and Pete and since both of them currently lead the army of heartless, he has a hard time assaulting their fortress. He meets up with Roxas, who had been looking for him, wanting him to steal Kairi's heart so that Namine would be freed. Aros agrees to that if Roxas were to help him win the castle back. They team up and overthrow Malificent and Pete with the help of Roxas' nobodies (normal ones, like dusks and samurais). Aros keeps his end of the bargain and steals Kairi's heart, releasing Namine. Roxas, however, then decides that the castle would be wasted on a miserable heartless like Aros and kicks him out. Aros is furious about that betrayal and swears that he would eventually get his revenge. He then goes to the end of the world and builds up his heartless army there. Roxas is fine with that since he expects Aros' heartless army to bring him some nice new nobodies to recruit

The last one of them is Xion who appears in Twilight Town. She is the only one of the five fragments who is actually interested in getting Sora back because that's what she believes is right. Sora had been the keyblade's chosen one and therefore important for the universe. However, no one recognizes her and thus she gets shoved aside as a lunatic who doesn't know what she is talking about. Especially since she keeps asking the other fragments to get Sora back, which all of them obviously refuse to do. Growing frustrated with them all, she steals one of Roxas keyblades (her old one) and decides to gradually manipulate the future events out from the shadows. Note that she is the weakest of all fragments, which is the reason why she can't simply defeat them all one by one and force them to reunite.

Vanitas would eventually find out where Aqua ended up being by visiting Yen Sid. Originally planning to beat the information out of him, he is surprised that Yen Sid doesn't show any hostility towards him. He willingly gives away all the information he wants, claiming that Vanitas is not to be blamed for his former master's sins. He appreciates the old man's cooperation and enters the realm of darkness to search for Aqua. He finds her and they both end up fighting. Since Aqua had been weakened by her long imprisonment in the dark realm, he overpowers her easily and beaten as she eventually ended up to be, she is forced to listen to what he has to say. He tells her that their masters had been stupid, that neither light nor darkness were good or evil but merely a different kind of power. He mentions the X-blade and explains to her that the reason why that blade was the strongest of them all was simply the reason that it was perfectly balanced between darkness and light. Therefore he had used his time as a prisoner to think and had come to the conclusion that the most desired state to live in isn't total darkness, nor total light, but must instead be a perfect balance of darkness and light. Only then could there be peace and equality between users of darkness and users of light.

Naturally he doesn't care about peace or anything of that sort, instead, he actually only wants the X-blade to become the single most powerful being in the universe. Once he would manage to forge the blade, he could claim Kingdom Hearts and become its king. Once that were to happen, he would be unstoppable.

Aqua for her part can't help but see the logic in what Vanitas says. The sole reason why she had been trapped in the realm of darkness for so long is simply because their masters had fought over their stupid beliefs. She still loved Eraqus, but she was somewhat angry with him for having tried to eliminate Ventus and fighting Terra. She thinks he had been wrong. Why must there be quarrel between her and her friends just because Terra had been a user of darkness? Why had the master been forced to eliminate Ventus just because he had stood at chance of getting used by Xehanort? It had all been so stupid. If Darkness and Light were to become equal, all fighting should eventually stop. She wants to see that happen.

However, she still does not want to keep traveling with Vanitas, who she resents. He is the embodiment of evilness in her opinion and she does not want to have anything to do with him. Unfortunately, though, Vanitas is the only one she had managed to meet in ten years and obviously also the only one who could help her escape this hellhole. Reluctantly, she agrees to come with him.

They head over to Radiant Garden where Aqua can feel her armor and keyblade calling for her. Vanitas agrees to help her find her stuff because without it, she would not be a suitable partner. They had to be equally strong to create an absolute balance between darkness and light to form the x-blade after all. Aqua tells him that she feels her blade calling her from below the server room in Ansem's old castle. Since they don't know the password, Vanitas simply decides to demolish the false ground and force his way into the secret chamber.

There they eventually find Aqua's equipment, alongside Terranort who sits on the chair in the middle of the room. He must have come back to life after Ansem Seeker of Darkness and Xemnas had perished. Something is wrong, however. Terranort doesn't seem to be himself, apparently standing in conflict with the two identities resting in the body. Terra and Xehanort must be trying to win over control over the body, resulting in Terranort acting like someone suffering from schizophrenia and amnesia. Vanitas senses danger coming from him and urges them to grab the stuff and leave, but Aqua insists on taking Terra with them. Unfortunately, Terranort reacts unfavorably to getting called by that name and suddenly lunges at them in rage ("Terra? That is not my name. Or is it? Who am I?")

Vanitas opens a dark portal in the last second and pushed Aqua into it, wanting to prevent her from dying since she was an important component in forging the X-Blade. Reemerging at a different world, Aqua wants to scold Vanitas for having interfered, only to realize that he doesn't argue back as usual. Turning around at last, she sees that Vanitas had been wounded terribly and has trouble staying conscious. She becomes conflicted.

On one hand, she had regained her equipment, meaning that she no longer needs Vanitas to move between worlds. With her keyblade and her glider back in her hands, she could simply turn around and leave him behind for good.

However, her conscience interferes, preventing her form simply doing so. The wound Terranort had inflicted on him would surely kill him if no one were to heal it for him. She somehow has to admit that she would never be able to forgive herself if she were to simply leave him for dead after he had actually saved her from getting hurt. On closer inspection she realizes that Terranort's attack could have very well ended her if he hadn't interfered. Reluctantly she decides to take him to somewhere safe to heal him up. It is the least she can do.

Meanwhile, Terranort breaks free and travels the worlds in search for his true identity. Memories of Ansem SoD bring him to the end of the world, where he runs into Aros. Aros then immediately notices the superb dark aura of the newcomer and offers him a partnership to plunge the worlds into darkness together. Terranort, however, is totally uninterested and really disappointed that he hadn't been able to find out anything regarding his true identity. In his frustration he beats up Aros and the heartless, who always follow the strongest, choose to follow him instead of Aros. While Terranort leaves for other worlds, Aros cuses him and is downright infuriated over his second setback in a row. He decides that Terranort needs to go before he could continue working on his plan to bring darkness to the universe. Since he still has a bit of control over a couple of heartless, he sets out into the worlds to find people with a lot of darkness in their hearts. If he only could order a small force of heartless, he would make sure to fill that small force completely up with elite-class heartless. With them he would make sure to teach Terranort a lesson.

Terranort continues his quest to find his identity and ends up in the world that never was. There, he happens to see the new Kingdom Hearts Roxas and Namine are building. The sight of Kingdom Hearts causes him to remember parts of his past as Xemnas and he starts to feel as if he finally had gotten on to something. Happy to have made progress at last, he decides to leave again. However, the heartless that had followed him here get attracted to Kingdom Hearts. Roxas and Namine are unable to protect their new Kingdom Hearts from the onslaught of heartless, even with their army of nobodies. It falls and they realize that they now have to start all over again which clearly infuriates them (as much as nobodies can get infuriated)

The next step on Terranort's journey ends up being the Keyblade Graveyard where his memories gradually start to come back to him. Xion, who had tailed him in secret for a while now, finally decides to confront him there as well. She tells him that he would be able to regain the last bits of his memories if he were to go to Disney Castle where Micky, Riku and Ventus were. She has hopes that a confrontation with Micky would lead to a fight in which hopefully Ventus would get dragged into as well. If Ventus were to get weakened, she could absorb him. With his power absorbed, she could then try challenging Vanitas, figuring that she would stand a reasonable chance against him if she were to combine Ven's as well as her own power. Should she manage to defeat Vanitas as well, she could then attempt to work on Roxas or Aros. If she were to be fast enough, she would probably manage to reunite with them all to get Sora back just in time for him to defeat the still confused Terranort before he reawakens to Xehanort.

Her plan eventually fails, though. Terranort actually goes to Disney Castle, however, seeing Ven's face causes the wrong memories to resurface inside him. Getting confused and conflicted again, Terranort is forced to leave the world again in pain before a battle could commence. Xion is downright disappointed while Micky gets alarmed because of Terranort's presence.

Meanwhile, Vanitas slowly recovers with Aqua's help. He blames her for what had happened and to his surprise, she actually agrees with him for the first time in their time together. She understands now that her actions had been reckless and foolish. That she would have died if not for Vanitas. He is so taken aback by her honesty that he actually doesn't know how to respond. Aqua then tells him that she plans to confront Terranort on her own once Vanitas would have fully healed. That is naturally something he objects to instantly. Knowing his former master's strength, he is fully aware of the fact that Aqua would only die if she were to face him alone. He tells her that and also adds the fact that neither she nor he himself would be powerful enough to defeat him, even if they were to attack him together. He also explains to her that in order to get Terra back, she would have to use the keyblade to release Xehanort's heart and free Terra of his influence.

Aqua then suggests to use Vanitas' former apprenticeship as an excuse to approach Terranort and stab him with the keyblade in a moment he wouldn't expect it to happen. Vanitas points out that only keyblade wielders with a master title are able to use the technique required to set hearts free. Unfortunately, he had never gotten the title from Xehanort. Aqua remembers that she is a master and thus could take in students to make them reach the master rank as well. Without further ado, she then appoints Vanitas as her student. Since their strengths are already on pretty much the same level, it would surely not take long for her to make him into a master.

Terranort had tried to bring order to the chaos that was his mind in the meantime. Slowly, Terra's struggle against Xehanort had concluded with his loss. Xehanort praises the boy's endurance and determination in the fight, but states that in the end it had been a hopeless one. Terra had never stood a chance at actually winning against him. It had always been only a matter of time before he would have finally regained control over his body. With that, Xehanort finally awakes completely about at the same time Vanitas manages to get the master title from Aqua. Yen Sid is present at his graduation and confirms Vanitas' skills to be worthy of that of a master.

With his newly gained master title he then approaches his former master. Since he, too, wanted Xehanort out of the picture out of fear that he would get in their way, he naturally agreed to help Aqua in freeing Terra, figuring it would be fine as long as it would destroy Xehanort. He waits for the exact right moment to trick his former master into false safety before finally striking him quickly and with perfect precision. His blade pierces Xehanort's chest, but unexpectedly, the onder man manages to still fight back and push the blade out again with his own power. He mocks Vanitas for actually believing that he could best him who had been the one who had taught him everything he knows. It would take more than one freshly baked master to overpower a veteran such as himself. He then proceeds to beat the living daylights out of his former student in anger and disappointment. He calls Vanitas a failure who hadn't even been able to perform such a simple task as forging the X-blade correctly

He manages to beat Aqua's name out of him, which suddenly makes him stop abusing him. Suddenly smirking, he admits that Vanitas must have been smarter than he would have given him credit for. He then urges him to go and forge the X-blade already, followed by bringing it to him. In return, he would let him live. Weakly, Vanitas admits that he doesn't know how to unite with Aqua, since she isn't Ventus. He had been able to forge the blade with Ventus before because they had been two halves of the same person once. With Aqua, that obviously didn't apply. Xehanort only sighs at his former student's stupidity. He tells him that it shouldn't be all too hard to find a way to unite with a woman. After all, countless generations before him had actually managed to do that already in order to create offspring.

Vanitas immediately understands what his master means and feels ashamed that he had never thought about that possibility before. All that time they had wasted to look for a method when the actual way had been so simple...he picks up his broken body and drags himself back to Aqua to report to her.

Naturally, the blue haired keyblade master is disappointed to hear of the failure of their plan and even more infuriated by the so called "solution" Xehanort offers them. She may have long since agreed already that the X-blade was a necessity in the fight against Xehanort and that she would forge it with Vanitas (they had discussed this during Vanitas' training where they had also tried finding ways for them to unite), but never would she agree to form the blade THAT way. She insists that they keep looking for another way which visibly pisses off Vanitas who would rather have the X-blade now. After getting his ass kicked by Xehanort, he can't think of qnything else but getting his revenge. Without the X-blade, that would simply be impossible. However, forcing Aqua into it would likely cause the ritual to fail. If he had learned anything from his failed attempt at reuniting with Ventus, it was the simple fact that they hadn't come to an understanding which had caused the forging of the X-blade to fail.

Thinking about it logically, if the X-blade required an absolute balance between darkness and light, if he had to overpower Aqua to get it, his darkness would have to be stronger than her light, thus destroying the balance and causing the X-blade to become a failure, just like the last one. If Aqua refused to accept that method, they were forced to look for another, causing them to come to a standstill.

In the meantime, Aros forms an alliance with Maleficent to create powerful heartless to recruit in his army. Likewise, Xion joins Roxas and Namine in a temporary alliance to at least give him back her keyblade. Since she had failed to reunite all the fragments in time for Sora to come back and defeat Xehanort, she is forced to make do by betting everything on the strongest fragment which she believes is Roxas. He can wield two keyblades at the same time, has experience in doing so and has an army of nobodies behind him as well as more powerful nobodies who he had recruited into his new organization. A nice side-effect of Aros gathering up his war potential.

The king also doesn't rest idly. He is busy training Ventus into a master with the help of Riku and Yen Sid. Ventus only gets more and more motivated to reach mastery ever since he had seen Terranort. Determined to save his friend, he is willing to give it his all to become a master as soon as he can.

During that time, Aqua and Vanitas are forced to go into hiding. If Xehanort were to find them, he would surely sweep the floor with them. On their travels they keep looking for alternatives and, over time, start to get closer to each other. Slowly, their opposing characteristics begin to become less opposing as they start to adapt at each other. Aqua gradually becomes more understanding of Vanitas' difficult character and even Vanitas starts to try being less of an ass around her. Only to stop her nagging in the beginning, but eventually also because she really wishes it of him. Total resentment becomes mutual discomfort with the other, followed by a purely business oriented partnership (she wants the X-blade for peace, he wants it to dominate everyone and everything) where it eventually develops into friendship and from there to love.

With every day they pointlessly waste in search for an alternative way for them to unite, the already known method startes to lose more and more of its repulsiveness. Somewhere along the way, Aqua's motives for her refusal change from disgust to fear. She is afraid Vanitas would only care about the X-blade and leave her alone afterwards. Even if she had started to like him, she was well aware of his flaws. One of the biggest one being his unrivaled selfishness. In the end, though, she manages to overcome her fears and decides to risk it. The result is that she, indeed, wakes up on the next morning to the sight of Vanitas standing with X-blade in hand, grinning at it like a madman. However, instead of walking out of the door and vanishing forever, even though he actually seems to have considered the thought, he actually does the unthinkable instead. He breaks the blade into two halves, giving one of them to her. His reasoning for that being that he had realized that the X-blade itself is far too powerful anyway to ever let someone manage to utilize its full potential. Figuring that, he had apparently decided that two well-handled halves were better than only one blade which could not be used fully.

He had said so without looking at her, making it all the more obvious that all of that had only been a mere excuse. She chuckles at that and decides to accept his words as for what they were, knowing deep down that he actually must have enjoyed her company as opposed to his days as a former lone wolf. And with that, they would eventually become inseparable, as if their union really had forged them together.

Together they confront Xehanort but even with the powerful X-blade, they have to make the horrible realization that he still is more powerful than them. He commends them for finally having managed to forge the X-blade, followed by telling them that he would take it away from them. However, that is the moment Aros arrives with his small army of elite-heartless and also Roxas and his organization join the fight. Eventually, even Micky, Riku and Ventus enter the fray and even though Xehanort puts in a lot of effort to form some heavy resistance, by combining their powers, the unthinkable eventually happens. He falls. Extracting his heart out of Terra's body, the brunette boy finally is free again, happy to be himself for the first time in ages.

Following that glorious event, Aros manages to regain full control over his heartless army, Roxas and his organization returned to work on their Kingdom hearts, happy to no fear another destruction thanks to Xehanort, Xion, having lost her motivation to bring Sora back now that he isn't needed anymore, follows Roxas in hope of rebuilding their lost friendship while Terra, Ventus and Aqua eventually end up having a rather...unpleasant reunion.

They are happy at first to finally be together again, until they spot Vanitas waiting for Aqua in the distance. When both of them storm forward to fight him, they get surprised by Aqua actually defending him. She keeps trying to make her friends understand that things had changed, that darkness isn't as bad as their master had always told them it would be. This only causes her friends to get even angrier with her. How could she even utter such foolishness? Darkness, supposed to be equal to light? Hasn't it been darkness that had caused Terra to be enslaved by Xehanort for years? Hadn't Ventus lost his heart because of his own darkness running loose and becoming its own personality called Vanitas? No matter how hard Aqua tries to make them understand, they refuse to listen. And with their unwavering resolve, they keep on trying to convince her, ironically, by force.

Believing that it has been Vanita's doing that had somehow brainwashed Aqua into believing the nonsense she spouts, they form the theory that if they were to defeat him, his grip on her would weaken, too. That it would dispel the wicked dark magic he must undoubtedly have put on her. Despite their efforts, however, Aqua and Vanitas keep repenting them easily with their X-blades. Until Terra eventually decides to give up. Deeming Aqua a grown woman and master of the keyblade, he tells everyone that he thinks it would be her business to see fit in whom she puts her trust in.

He returns to Castle Oblivion and transforms it back into the Land of Departure, from where he intends to train the next generation of keyblade masters in his late master's stead. He tells Aqua she is free to return whenever she wants, but to never bring that dark haired monster with her that reeks of darkness. Angered by that remark, Vanitas replies that he wouldn't even want to return to that light-infested dump of a world even if he begged him to, followed by leaving by himself.

Aqua then finds herself in quite a complicated situation, conflicted by her desire to return home with her friends at long last and staying with Vanitas whom she had fallen in love with. After thinking about it for a long time, she eventually decides to follow Vanitas, telling Terra that she would not return home until she would be allowed to do so together with Vanitas. Terra, though angered by her decision, still accepts it and lets her go. Aqua is clearly disappointed with him and his stubbornness. While she knows that Vanitas doesn't exactly make it easy for people to actually like him, she found Terra's unwillingness to even give him a chance downright unfair which is also the reason she decides to stay with Vanitas for the time being.

Ventus for his part is shocked about the fact that Terra had given in so easily. In his eyes, Vanitas is nothing else but the embodiment of evil and wickedness. To let Aqua be near him willingly...what kind of friend does he call himself? But the brunette man merely disregards the blond's words. He tells him that he had recently started doubting that Aqua really had been brainwashed by Vanitas. He had asked multiple magicians, including Yen Sid and Merlin and both of them had told him that no such magic existed and that even if it had, that Aqua would not be under its influence. Therefore, he had decided that it simply is none of his business anymore what Aqua chooses to do. Aqua was her own master and if she wanted to go to the dark side, then he could do little but let her.

After all, he knows for himself how unstoppable people could be once they have set their minds to accept the darkness. He had been there before and if even someone like Aqua would willingly want to walk the path of darkness, then something far stronger than anything in his or Ventus' power must have convinced her to do.

Ventus feels helpless afterwards. Without the help of his older, strong friend, he simply thinks of himself of being unable to successfully defeat his darker half and save Aqua from him, not realizing that she is in no need of saving in the first place. In his helplessness, he decides to go back to his friend and master, Micky to ask him for help and advice. Micky, however, is busy with maintaining order and ensuring the light's dominance over the darkness in the universe. Reluctantly, Ventus decides that he needs to help Micky first to protect the universe, before he could help him with Aqua in return, which granted, simply hadn't been as huge of a problem as a universe-wide war against the heartless and nobodies had.

Micky, Riku and Ventus set out to crush Roxas' organization first, figuring that they are the bigger threat. Facing against Roxas and his organization members, Micky sees himself forced to admit that their forces had been equally matched. Three keyblade masters versus one keyblade wielding nobody and a small group of elite-nobodies apparently would result in a stalemate. That is until Aros suddenly appears from out of nowhere and decides to open a second front against the nobodies. Being delighted over the fact that he at long last could have his revenge against Roxas, he keeps laughing maniacally as he watches his heartless tearing apart the Kingdom Hearts Roxas and his organization had put so much effort in constructing. Using the distraction brought by the heartless, Micky and Co. proceed to fight their way through the organization's ranks, assassinating everyone in their path.

Roxas attempts to fight to the last man, but gets dragged into a dark portal by Namine and Xion instead. Being forced to look at the heartless and Micky's forces tearing his fortress and Kingdom Hearts apart, he could do little but fall to his knees in defeat, watching his castle burn to the ground as Aros' laughter fills the night.

That is also the moment in which the true war really starts. With The nobodies finally out of the way, Aros's heartless are no longer hunted by Roxas' organization to collect hearts for their Kingdom Hearts. And with that being the case, the heartless had finally lost their biggest natural enemy. Now that they are finally allowed to expand to all the worlds they want, Aros lets them march into one world after the other, plunging it into darkness. In the months to come, King Micky and his allies would fight many brutal battles against the heartless, causing them all to change. Micky devolops the rather harsh opinion that all darkness was bad and had to die. His friends can clearly see how consumed he starts to become by that war of his. It would soon reach the point in which they would call him fanatic. Almost worse than how Master Eraqus had been back in the day.

Ventus and Riku for their part start to become steeled by the endless battles against the never ending hordes of darkness. Riku gradually loses every last bit of emotion. After having lost both Sora and Kairi to the heartless, he appears to wish for little more but to lose himself in the state of bloodlust, letting the boiling blood in his head rush through his veins so loudly that it drowns out all other sound around him. He now wishes for nothing more but to live for battle and let the combat itself prevent him from thinking about anything else, especially not is lost friends. Until his last breath he simply wants to fight.

Ventus, however, gets tired of the war fast, unlike Riku. The months he had spent fighting the heartless in this war had cost him way more than he could tell anymore. He had lost his childish innocence long ago. By now, he barely even attempts to make friends anymore, knowing that the next day, he would only see them die in battle, slain by heartless. As, one day, he finds himself surrounded by a horde of these dark creatures all on his own, he simply decides to let his keyblade go and fall down on his knees, embracing death.

Much to his surprise, though, death never comes. After getting embraced by darkness, he finds himself waking up in his old bed back home. His wounds had been treated and he had been completely safe. Wondering what this actually is all about, he realizes that no one else but Aqua sits on a chair next to his bed, seeping calmly. Yelling her name in surprise, he immediately manages to wake her up, from where she proceeds to tell him what had happened.

She and Vanitas had previously decided to take a break after the battle with Xehanort. After fooling around together in various worlds, doing whatever the hell they had wanted, far away from the war, they had recently started hearing of the heartless army advancing gradually. Vanitas had initially thought that it wouldn't be any of their business until Aqua had argued that if the heartless were to destroy everything, there soon wouldn't be a universe left for them to liberate/conquer (Aqua's/Vanita's wording respectively). Having been forced to agree with her logic, they had soon after set out to check the situation out for themselves, only to be horrified by the actual severity of the conflict. As they had watched the king's forces trying to fight back the enemy, they had also happened to spot Ventus among the soldiers. When they had seen him getting surrounded by heartless, Aqua had immediately stepped in, thus forcing Vanitas to enter the battle as well, although reluctantly. With their X-blades they had managed to protect him, followed by grabbing him and bringing him back home. Which had been the reason he had eventually woken up here.

Ventus then lets out the first tears he had cried in a long while, being so happy to have Aqua back. He thanks her from the bottom of her heart which only makes her look down sadly as she tells him that she wouldn't stay, immediately catching him by surprise. The reason for that is quickly explained by her telling him that Terra had temporarily allowed her and Vanitas to stay here in the Land of Departure until Ven were to wake up. Afterwards, they were to leave. She gets up and pats his head kindly and with a smile, telling him that it had been good to see him again and that she is happy that he is okay. She also tells him to go and thank Vanitas if he could since he had also helped in Ven's rescue and it would make her happy to see them finally getting along.

He refuses at first, not wanting to make friends with a demon like Vanitas, but eventually decides to do it anyway since it had been Aqua's wish and she had asked him so kindly. He goes outside in his slightly injured state to look for Vanitas who hadn't been allowed to enter the building. He eventually spots him overlooking the area boredly, standing at a cliff with his arms folded in front of him. Ven can't help but notice how Vanitas was even more injured than he was, confirming the validity of Aqua's story. He eventually chooses to approach him.

After a long, awkward silence between them, Vanitas eventually breaks the ice by calling him an idiot. From there on, they somehow manage to hold a decent conversation without jumping at each other's throats. At its end, Vanitas finally turns to Ventus after having faced away the entire time. He tells him that since Aqua wouldn't shut up about him finally making up with him, he would be willing to do it, if only to make her stop bothering him with it. He offers Ventus a handshake to seal the deal and Ventus is about to accept, but the moment he actually faces Vanitas, his black mane and golden eyes causes something in his mind to snap. In front of his eyes, Vanita's image transforms into one of a bloodthirsty and powerful heartless. The handshake he offered turns into razorsharp claws trying to grab him. Crying out in terror, he summoned his keyblade on reflex, using it to thrust forward to exterminate the monster like he had done almost every day during the last couple months.

When his eyes finally decide to dispel the weird illusion again, he is shocked to see Vanitas falling to his knees angrily, trying to summon his blade to return the favor, but failing to do so as he feels his power leaving him and his body turning into darkness. Aqua, who had secretly followed along to witness what she had thought would be a heartwarming scene, immediately comes out running to help Vanitas somehow.

Unfortunately, there was already nothing left for her to do. With his last strength, Vanitas passes up all his darkness to her so that she would still be able to wield the X-blade, then he eventually fades away, leaving behind nothing but a devastated blue haired girl.

The following days, Aqua would not leave her room, not even to eat. Ventus' attempts at apologizing are met with failure as she even refuses to speak to him. When she eventually comes out of her room again, Ven and Terra are shocked to see that she had slightly changed. Her hair had become purple and one of her eyes had now been golden. She had become the first being in existence to be in total balance between light and darkness, having mastered both arts (having learned all light-based moves herself while having inherited all of Vanitas' skills through his last gift to her). With the complete X-blade in hand, she then confronts Ventus, asking him just one question: Why?

Ventus then falls down to his knees, crying and begging her for forgiveness. He tells her that he hadn't meant to. That it had all been an accident. He says he does not know why his eyes had suddenly decided to play a trick on him. And even though Aqua is downright furious at him, she realizes from the sincerity in his voice, that he is telling the truth.

Terra raises the theory that Ven might have become a victim of some kind of trauma related to the war he had participated in. He states that people like Ven simply aren't cut out for war and that this is what would happen to them eventually.

Aqua accepts that explanation, followed by leaving her home wordlessly. Ven's question asking her if she could ever forgive him is left ignored by her. The only thing she says to them as she leaves is that she wouldn't ever come back, thus breaking Ven's heart.

She seeks out Roxas soon afterwards, who was hiding in his old apartment in Twilight Town together with Namine and Xion. She makes him an offer he can't refuse. If he were to help her fulfill her and Vanitas' last wish of bringing the universe into total balance, she would promise him not only hearts for himself and Namine, but also revenge against King Micky who had done them both injustice. Roxas for destroying his Kingdom Hearts and her for causing Ventus to become a danger to himself and everyone around him. Roxas readily accepts, despite Xion's heavy objections. In her opinion, Aqua would become a far greater threat to the universe than Xehanort ever had been if she were to get her way. Dismissing her worries since he simply isn't capable of feeling worry, Xion is forced to go away, leaving Roxas to do whatever he wants.

This causes both, him and Aqua, to go to the keyblade graveyard where she proceeds to call forth Kingdom Hearts. The summoning of the great moon was accompanied by many portals opening around them, calling forth every single keyblade warrior who currently exists in the grand universe, no matter how far away they are. Hundreds of keyblade wielders were gathering up at the wasteland, forming two camps. Those who wield the powers of darkness and those who do so with the powers of light. Originally, they had been supposed to fight each other for dominance, so that the winning faction could claim Kingdom hearts, but Aqua would have none of that. Swinging her X-blade she simply demonstrates her power in front of everyone by letting a nearby mountain crumble apart in the explosion the X-blade had caused.

She simply declares that it would be her who would claim Kingdom Hearts today and that she would defeat everyone who would dare oppose her. To instill even more fear into their hearts she makes Roxas summon the entire rest of his nobody army. Every single nobody left in existence shows up next to her. This eventually would serve its purpose. The majority of keyblade weilders are too afraid to face her and Roxas' forces head on and the few who actually do are quickly reduces to ashes.

After everyone starts yielding one after another, she eventually is allowed to claim what she and Vanitas had wanted to claim all along. Kingdom Hearts. With its power, Aqua is sure that she would be able to end all meaningless conflicts and bring peace to the universe. And she would rule over it like Vanitas would have wanted to himself.

Not soon after she had absorbed all the power Kingdom Hearts had offered to her, she had crowned herself queen of Kingdom hearts and from there on out, the reconstruction of the universe would eventually begin.

Starting with giving Roxas what she had promised him. Going to to Disney Castle together, Aqua calls out King Micky for being an incompetent fool whose misdeeds had harmed the universe long enough. She demands his execution and even though he and Ventus beg for mercy, she simply ignores their pleas. Since Micky knows he wouldn't stand a chance against her anyway, he can do little but accept defeat in dignity. Walking up to Roxas and kneeling before him, the nobody puts both of his blades on each of the king's shoulders and on Aqua's mark, he proceeded to behead the king mercilessly in a clean, swift motion.

Picking up his bloody crown of the ground, Aqua then crowns Roxas to be the new king of the light realm and, seeing queen Minnie trembling in fear behind her throne, she merely proceeds to take her crown wordlessly as well only to put it on Namine's head instead. Following that, she uses the power of Kingdom Hearts to grant them both hearts at last, overjoying them instantly. They both vow their loyalty to Aqua and the blue haired queen, satisfied with them, wishes them fun in their new kingdom and tells them to call her whenever someone would cause trouble for them.

Soon afterwards, Aqua also does the same for Aros, appointing him the leader of the realm of darkness through her dominance alone (basically telling him "Obey me, or perish"). She then gives her vassals clear orders to get along with each other and never invade each other's territory. Both of them accept (though Aros does so reluctantly) and just like that, peace had come to the universe at last.

No more wars. No more conflicts. Aqua sits on her throne in Kingdom Hearts and watches down on the universe that lies at her feet, pleased to see that she had achieved what she had always wanted to achieve, though sadly without Vanitas. She is sad to admit that her achievements feel empty to her since there is no one to share them with. She had become the queen of the universe, but would also be the most lonely being in existence as well.

In her loneliness, she starts to take a stroll around the worlds, taking in all the beautiful scenes unfolding around her. Scenes of peace and happiness. Of people being glad that the war was over and also of people falling in love. She watches these people with a sad smile and continues on until she runs into Ventus, sitting alone in front of a fountain in Radiant Garden. Looking as if he is lost deep in thought, she chooses to approach him even though she is feeling her mood deteriorating just from seeing him. Nonetheless, she asks him what it was that he is thinking about, feeling slightly curious. He tells her that he still feels guilty because of what he had done.

Aqua shows a bit of sympathy for him, yet also remains cold, unable to really forgive him for what he had done, either. She tells him that he must learn to live with what he had done and that if he can't do that, he at least should give her back what he had taken from her.

His question of whether there is a way for him to do that is met with a nod as she tells him that she could wipe out his light and put Vanita's darkness into him instead, which should bring him back. Since they both originally had been the same person, there simply isn't a single reason she can think of that would prevent his return.

After thinking for a short while, Ven eventually tells her to do it, catching her slightly by surprise. But even once she asks him again, his answer does not change. His only condition is that she has to forgive him afterwards, which she accepts. Following their agreement, Aqua then proceeds to force darkness into his body to eradicate every last bit of light that dwells in his heart. Ventus yells and cries in pain as he feels his existence slowly getting wiped out to make room for Vanitas' one. As she starts getting the impression of having pushed back the light far enough, she then proceeds to let Vanitas' darkness enter his body.

But right as she is about to finish, Xion suddenly shows up and attempts to absorb the weakened Ventus alongside Vanitas' darkness to gain two fragments at once. However, something goes horrible wrong as Xion finds herself unable to control the fragments she had just absorbed. It turns out that she needs all of Sora's fragments at the same time to safely bring him back. Now that she had started absorbing only half of them, with Roxas and Aros still missing, she feels her control over her own body dwindling as Vanitas and Ventus who are both way stronger than her, both instinctively start to take over the foreign body that had unrightfully tried to assume them.

She feels her sanity failing her and the result is all three of their minds mixing together into a single one, creating a being that was all three, Vanitas, Ventus and Xion and still none of them at the same time. Changing appearances into a Sora with blond hair alongside some black strands and one yellow eye, Xion then starts referring to herself a Sora before running off into a portal of darkness, leaving behind a completely taken aback Aqua who can't even begin to understand what the hell just had happened in front of her.

Before she had noticed it, Xion had assaulted and forcibly absorbed Aros and Roxas as well, using the power of three and eventually four fragments to overpower them. In the end, even with all fragments of Sora collected, Xion had long since lost her reasoning to reassemble them back into the person that is Sora. Instead, she had become a twisted being with five keyblades which she somehow is able to swing around using her mind.

With the minds of 5 people fused together, there simply is no way that Xion would still be able to have any reasonable thoughts. Her mind has simply become a clusterfuck of voices talking at the same time. The most common words she hears are "Aqua" "hearts" and "conquer" which leads her to believe that she is supposed to conquer Aqua and do something with hearts? Or does it mean "Conquer Kingdom Hearts" which was held by Aqua? Yes, that must be it.

Aqua for her part is infuriated to see Xion creating chaos wherever she goes. Not only had she dared to interfere with Vanitas' revival, she had also absorbed Roxas and Aros, whom she still needs in order to protect the universe's peace. Dead set on restoring order, she promptly decides to engage Xion to set the fragments free again and punish her by death.

However, what sounds to be so easy eventually turns out to be quite a difficult task. With Xion now wielding 5 keyblades at the same time, Aqua, even with the X-blade , actually has a difficult time keeping up. What happens next is them going into an all-out battle with each other. A battle on a scale so big that at its conclusion, even though Aqua had emerged as the victorious combetant, nothing of the universe had actually been left for her to rule anymore.

Devastated because of these events, Aqua finds herself wandering the desolate wasteland, the sole remains of what had used to be such a big universe, rich with life. She tries to find any sort of life that may have actually survived. Something that she could actually still save, but to no avail.

The only things she would encounter are lingering sentiments of the people who had died during the battle. On one day, she eventually runs into the lingering sentiment of Vanitas, but no matter what she tries to restore him back to his former self, he would never turn back again. He just keeps following his last thoughts, trailing behind Aqua and keeping her safe from other sentiments. He never speaks, nor does he change his facial expression. He is nothing but a shadow of the former person, which further breaks Aqua's heart the more she looks at him.

After half an eternity of wandering the lifeless wasteland of her kingdom, Aqua eventually comes to the conclusion, that she does not wish to live like this any longer. Gathering all of her remaining power, she turns back time to the very moment in which Sora's heart is about to get fragmented, followed by preventing that event. Entering Sora's heart right afterwards, she is happy to see all of his fragments to be alive and well again.

She then shows them visions of the future, tells them what would happen if they were to ever break free. They all become shocked at this revelation and reluctantly agree with her that if that were to become their future, it would actually be better to remain a prisoner instead. At least that way they would still be alive. But what a sad life it would be…

Everyone sees it that way, with the only exception being Vanitas. He doesn't want to give up, tells Aqua that they could try again, do it better this time by avoiding doing the same mistakes. But Aqua merely hugs him tightly and shakes her head with a sad smile, telling him that it truly was regrettable but the universe would not be ready for absolute balance. Their intentions had been well and the idea great, but in the end, it had not been meant to be.

With that being said, she eventually vanishes, having ceased to exist due to the changes she had done to the past. If Vanitas never broke out, he would never meet her in the realm of darkness, if they never met, they would never form the plan to forge the x-blade. If they never forged the x-blade, she would never become queen. And thus her story ends, together with her existence, in oblivion.

* * *

 _ **Well, that's it. No happy end, because I never do happy ends.**_

 _ **One thing to say: NEVER start writing a story in the present tense when you usually write in simple past...I ended up falling back into simply past almost all the time and whenever I read my sentences, I thought they felt weird. Never again. I don't even know why I did write it in the present tense in the first place. Bloody hell.**_

 _ **Well, as you noticed, some things hadn't been finished. Such as Maleficent or Riku's role. They just simply up and vanish into nothingness, never getting mentioned again. Namine also feels pretty bland, but that's just because I had written her in back in a time I still intended to make use of her...by now I have unfortunately already forgotten what the use might have been. So she remained in the script with me having forgotten why. Sucks.**_

 _ **Well, this is just my unfinished plot bunny, so it can't be helped. If you have read this far, that probably means you at least enjoyed it somehow. I hope it will be of use to someone, be it as some kind of inspiration or something else.**_

 _ **Man, I never thought I would ever post in the KH section again. This will probably be my last entry, though. Anyway, thanks for reading and have a nice day.**_


End file.
